Christy and Lynn: Passover-ish

Neither of us is Jewish, but we both LOVE the Seder! We had already scheduled a couples dinner on the first night of Passover, so a meal inspired by the holiday was concocted.

Nothing traditional, by any means, but we put our own vegetarian (and healthier) spin on the Passover menu, and Abe found an app on his I-phone for the Haggadah.

Lynn’s Alcohol-Free/Sugarless Charoset (makes A LOT – too much for 4)

• 4 medium large apples (a combo of Jazz, Fuji, and Granny Smith)
• 1 whole Lemon
• 1 cup naturally sweetened nuts (Tierra Farm Organic Agave Ginger Cashew)
• 1 TB honey
• 3 TB Pomegranate Juice
• 1/2 stick of cinnamon

Squeeze 1/2 the lemon in some water. Chop the apples into bite size pieces, putting them in water so they don’t turn brown.  When you’re done chopping (it’ll take a while if you’re doing it by hand like I did) drain them and toss with the the juice of the other lemon half, the honey, and the pomegranate juice. Bash the nuts in a zip lock bag using a skillet or rolling pin (or just buy them crushed). Mix 3/4 of the mixture with the apples, using the remaining 1/4 to garnish, with grated cinnamon on top. Let sit in the fridge for 5-6 hours.

You can serve it as dessert, but we used it as an appetizer, with matzoh:

Lynn – Charoset is traditionally made with sweet kosher wine, of which I had none. You can use more honey (or agave if you want to make it vegan) but I found it to be sweet enough with just a tablespoon. I also made Matzoh Brie, using Whole Wheat Matzoh. To make it “fancier,” I used this recipe from The Perfect Pantry, which is almost like a pancake or frittata:

Lynn – I think I prefer a scrambled version…this one was savory, but you can also have it sweet – with sugar or maple syrup – for breakfast.

The table:

Lynn – We’re still housesitting so we actually had a dining table to eat at!  Watching the sun go down on the beach was breathtaking.

Christy – I brought over a kale salad that had red bell peppers and pine nuts in it. I usually use a lemon vinaigrette dressing when I make this, but last night I brought the Annie’s Natural’s Gingerly Vinaigrette and used that instead. And it was extra lucky that we had kale because we didn’t have any parsley to use for the bitter greens!

We recently received some Macaroons from Emmy’s Organics to review, the perfect Passover dessert!

Christy – Loved Emmy’s Macaroons! The ingredients are all whole and nutritious and they are small enough to enjoy without feeling like you have overdone it. My favorite was the chocolate one.

Lynn – I really dug that flavor as well. It tasted very rich, without being too sweet. The boys liked the vanilla ones better, though. Maybe it’s a female thing?

With Christy’s homemade chocolate chip cookies – recipe here – not so Passover-friendly:

Yay, Sorta-Seder! Though we didn’t have lamb shanks or horseradish or too much wine (even though it IS the world’s oldest drinking game) it was still a lot of fun, and great to celebrate with dear friends.

Do you celebrate Passover? What are your traditions?

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